After
he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,“Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”
Simon said in reply,
“Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat
to come to help them.
They came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
Luke
5:1-11
We
all know God forgives sins but we can never leave it at that. We always hedge a little:
God
forgives, but you separate yourself from God when you sin.
God
forgives, but you have to repent.
God
forgives, as long as you believe in Jesus.
Baptism
removes sin, but doesn’t remove the sins you commit after that.
Recently,
I read an author who insisted that sinful people condemn themselves to hell –
they volunteer to be there.
This
passage indicates that Peter thought he had to achieve moral perfection to walk
with the divine, but he was wrong. Peter
is the recipient of divine abundance despite being incapable of earning even a
paltry catch during a whole night of hard work. Paul will affirm the same thing
in Romans (5:8) stating that Jesus died for us, “while we were yet sinners.”
God
does not seem overly concerned with sin, and yet we consistently make it the centerpiece
of faith.
